Aerated oscillatory clothes hamper



p 1953 J. F. HEIBERG AERATED OSCILLATORY CLOTHES HAMPER Filed June 25,1951 lllllllll llf/l Patented Sept. 29, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE4 Claims.

This, invention relates to clothes hampers. More particularly, itrelates to clothes hampers adapted for mounting beneath a clothes chutein position to receive therefrom and adapted to. provide adequateventilation for its contents to permit moist garments to be depositedtherein Without danger of mildew.

It is a general object of my invention to provide a novel and improvedclothes hamper characterized by its cheap and simple construction andinstallation and by its increased convenience in use.

A more specific object is to provide an aerated clothes hamper adaptedto be easily and readily moved to a position whereby gravity will causeit to discharge its contents and mounted in such a manner as to cause itto return to its normal receiving position by and of itself as soon asit is released.

Another object is to provide an aerated clothes hamper adapted forpositioning beneath a clothes chute and mounted eccentrically so that itwill discharge its contents of itself when rotated to dischargingposition without. any manual handling of the contents and will return toits normal receiving position without the use of springs or the like.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will be moreapparent from the following description made in connection with theaccompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer tosimilar parts throughout the several views and in which Fig. 1 is afront elevational view of one embodiment of my invention with portionsbroken away to show the interior thereof;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the same.

One embodiment of my invention may include as shown in Figs. 1-2 agenerally cylindrically shaped member, indicated generally as 5, andhaving circular disc-like end portions 6 and foraminated side walls 1.These end portions 6 may be made of any suitable material such as woodor metal and the side walls I may also be made of any suitablyperforated material such as metal screen or a perforated metal such asaluminum. The perforations 8 which are formed in the side walls 1 arepreferably of relatively large diameter and numerous in number. Arelatively large receiving opening 9 is formed in the side walls i alongone of the sides of the member 5. This opening 9 should be of sufficientsize to readily receive the dirty clothes thereinto and is preferablylarger than the diameter of the chute indicated as III.

The member 5 is supported from the cross beams I I; by a pair ofsupports l2 suitably secured thereto and each of which engage theopposite end portions 6, As show-11,. these supports 12- are. comprisedof shafts or pipes which are right angular in shape. Each of the endportions 6 is provided. with an aperture is which extends therethroughhorizontally and which is of surficient diameter to receive thehorizontal portion- [4 of the support I2. A head l5 which is threadedlysecured to the inner end of, the. support. provents the end portions 6from slipping off the supports.

The apertures 13. which. receive the supports. l2 are formed inoff-center positions through the end portions 5. It. will. be noted thatthe apertures are located between the; centers of the end portions 6 andthe portions of the side walls 1 which define the. opening. 9- member 5'is eccentrically mounted so thatv the opening 9 will at all times faceupwardly toward the chute l0 and will receive therefrom in its normalposition. Should the member 5 be pivoted on the supports II, it willreadily return to its normal receiving position shown in Fig. 1 as soonas it is released because of its eccentric mounting. Thus the entiremember 5 is mounted to permit rotation of the same on a horizontal axiswhich extends longitudinally of the member.

A cord or cable I5 is secured to the normally upper portions of one ofthe end portions 6 and depends therefrom. This cord is provided tofacilitate the rotation of the member 5 to discharging position. Ifdesired, a stop spring I! may be provided and connected to the member 5and the cross beams H in such a manner so as to be ordinarily inuntensioned condition and to be placed under tension when the member 5is rotated to extreme discharging position. Such a stop spring however,is not considered to be necessary for the hamper to functionsatisfactorily.

It can be readily seen in Fig. 1 that the memher 5 is normally inreceiving position with respect to the chute i 0 so that any clothesdeposited in the chute will readily descend therethrough and bedeposited within the confines of the member 5. Because of the foraminousnature of the member 5 these clothes may be quite damp without danger ofmildew thereto since the relatively warm air currents adjacent theceiling of the basement will be permitted to pass through the member 5.It is understood, of course, that such a hamper as is disclosed hereinwill normally be Thus the entire- 3 mounted in the basement beneath thedischarge of the clothes chute.

Whenever the housewife is ready to wash clothes or desires to empty themember 5 for any other reason, she may accomplish the same easily andreadily by merely pulling on the cord or cable [5. Thereupon the member5 will immediately pivot on the horizonta1 portions I4 of the supportsI2 to a position where the opening 9 will face downwardly and theclothes therein will drop outwardly therethrough. As soon as the cableI6 is released, gravity will cause the member 5 to return to itsoriginal and receiving position. The stop spring I! may be utilized ifdesired to prevent the housewife from drawing the member 5 overdead-center position, thus creating a tendency for the member to swingway over instead of returning in the opposite direction to which it wasoriginally rotated.

It should be noted that there is absolutely no requirement for manualhandling of the clothes at any time. In other words the housewife is notrequired to reach into the confines of the member 5 to withdraw theclothes therefrom.

It should be noted that my clothes hamper is disposed in an out-of-wayposition at all times and that there is no danger of a portion thereofdropping and striking an individuals head while working therearound. Theuser is not hindered at any time because of the positioning of thedevice and is never required to reach into the same to be sure that ithas been completely emptied.

It can be readily seen that my clothes hamper is relatively cheap andsimple to manufacture and is characterized by its greater convenience tothe housewife while in use.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made inthe form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts withoutdeparting from the scope of my invention.

What I hereby claim is:

1. An automatically uprighting clothes hamper for use in conjunctionwith a clothes chute and comprising a foraminous container having anopening adjacent its upper medial portions adapted to be disposed whenproperly supported directly below such a chute and having a pair of endportions each adapted adjacent said opening to be pivotally mounted onspaced supports for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis extendinglongitudinally of the container and means for maintaining said openingnormally directly below said chute to receive clothes therefrom intosaid container.

2. An automatically uprighting clothes hamper for use in conjunctionwith a clothes chute and comprising a hollow generally cylindricalreceptacle having foraminated side Walls and having a relatively largeopening in said side walls and between said end portions, saidreceptacle having end portions adapted at positions eccentric to thelongitudinal axis of the cylinder and adjacent the portions of said sidewalls defining said opening to be pivotally mounted for rotary movementabout an axis extending longitudinally of said receptacle upon spacedsupports below the discharge of the chute whereby said opening willnormally be caused by gravity to face upwardly below and toward thechute discharge to receive clothes therefrom into said receptacle, saidreceptacle when so supported being pivotable to a position where suchclothes will drop out of said receptacle by gravity.

3. An automatically uprighting clothes hamper for use in conjunctionwith a vertical clothes chute and comprising a hollow generallycylindrical receptacle having foraminated side walls and having arelatively large opening in said side walls and having a pair of opposedend portions, and pivotal mounting means secured to each of said endportions along an axis extending longitudinally of said receptacle andat points offset from the center thereof toward said opening, saidmounting means being adapted to be connected to spaced supports toposition said receptacle below the chute so that said opening will bedisposed normally in receiving position with respect to the discharge ofthe chute, said receptacle being pivotable when so supported to pivotabout a horizontal axis extending longitudinally of said receptacle todischarging position and to return to its original position by force ofgravity.

4. An automatically uprighting clothes hamper for use in conjunctionwith a vertical clothes chute and comprising hollow generallycylindrical receptacle having foraminated side walls with a relativelylarge opening formed in one portion thereof and having a pair of opposedend portions, pivotal mounting mechanism secured eccentrically to eachof said end portions between its center and said opening along an axisextending longitudinally of said receptacle whereby when supported bysaid mounting mechanism the force of gravity will cause said receptacleto pivot so that said opening will face upwardly, said mechanism beingadapted to be connected to supports to position said receptacle belowthe discharge of the chute in position so as to normally receivetherefrom through said opening, said receptacle being pivotable when sosupported to pivot about a horizontal axis extending longitudinally ofsaid receptacle to discharging position and to return to its normalreceiving position by force of gravity, and cable means connected tosaid receptacle for causing the same to pivot to discharging positionwhen desired.

JOSEPH F. HEIBERG.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 576,727 Healy Feb. 9, 1897 1,116,473 Oberle Nov. 10, 19141,648,811 Hillyard Nov. 8, 1927 1,724,236 Tierney Aug. 13, 19292,182,689 Carlson Dec. 5, 1939 2,452,243 Johnson Oct. 26, 1948

